TITLE: The greed for water - Agriculture in Andalusia

Andalusia, the southernmost province of Spain. A region of contrasts. The unrelenting heat is drying up the country. In the middle of it the olive trees stand in endless rows, as if they were part of a landscape that has become geometry. Intensive farming is spreading in the immediate vicinity, bringing the region to the brink of collapse. The water consumption of the 60 million olive trees and the vegetable production is gigantic. In large parts of Andalusia, groundwater resources are almost exhausted. Especially in the greater Almeria area, where a whitish-grey plastic sea of PVC foil stretches into infinity. Vegetables for the whole of Europe grow under the mosaic of spots: a bizarre testimony to the strange aesthetics of a spreading ecological madness.

AUTHOR: Christoph Roethenmund (Switzerland)

Christoph Röthenmund, 1968, lives and works in Berne, Switzerland. For several years he has been involved in photography and the implementation of photographic concepts. The intention to make the essence of a human being visible is as much at the centre of his work as capturing moments of experience in encounters with nature and landscapes.